Sarah Whitcher's Story

This is one of the very, very best and most wholesome children's book ever written! I would love to see it on "must read" lists. It tells the experience of a little girl (Sarah) who lived for about a week in a bear's cave (with a bear!) during pioneer times. Spoiler alert: She is miraculously found by a godly man who was given a vision about where to find Sarah. And the story is a true one. The author relays, at the end, that a descendant of little Sarah told the author that she re-told the story just as it had been passed down in their family. I read this to my granddaughter who was 5 at the time. She didn't want me to stop (skyping from the US to Japan), so I read the whole thing to her in one sitting. She was captivated. Elizabeth Yates (author) also wrote AMOS FORTUNE FREE MAN, which earned her a Newbery award in the days when Newberys were uplifting. She was really a talented writer. She researched her stories and told them beautifully. Don't miss this one!

This book is clearly written from a strong Christian perspective (it is published by the Bob Jones University Press.) Having lived through a similar experience I can tell you that prayer is about all that you have left. While some Christian stories seem to be built around the idea that the characters "need" to pray, this is a story where prayer feels very natural and a reliance upon God gives the characters strength and depth. So for that reason I very much liked this book. My children ages 8 and 6 thought it was good but didn't love it (somewhere in the middle they wearied of all the searching.) Is this story true? Perhaps the best part of the book is at the end where she talks about whether this story is factual or not. I wish that we had read that part first, it really made the story so much more interesting. This book also provided a nice platform for serious conversations.

I just finished Elizabeth Yates' retelling of the Sarah Whitcher's Story. It is wonderful! She has earned many awards as an author and researched sources in New Hampshire. After publishing the book in 1994, descendants of Sarah told her she told the tale as it was passed down from one generation of the family to the another to this day. It is a must-read. The family has the faith that the early settlers of the US had. It is not specifically mentioned: the father read the Book of Job to his family and they kept Sabbath on Sunday. It reads like a historical novel.

I have read this book to all 5 of my children. I never tire of hearing the story of little Sarah whitcher. My children adore the book and beg me to read it.

I recently ordered a lot of books from Amazon for our 7 grandchildren for Valentines day (aged 7-17), this one was a favorite. Great message, good morals, exciting, with age appropriate suspense, and best of all this family relies on God and has faith for their daughter's safe return. Nothing to concern parents such as I have found recently in other books for kids. This grandma reads and scrutinizes every book from cover to cover before giving them to the grands,

This is the first read aloud that has kept my daughter interested. She gets bored very quickly when listening to me read. Sarah Witcher kept her engaged the entire time! We used this as part of My Father’s World 2nd grade, and it has been our favorite so far.

This book is all right. I bought it because is was on a suggested reading list for homeschool children. I have a first and second grader. They enjoyed the story, for the most part, but it does drag a bit. I did find it interesting that it's based on a true story though. I had just hoped that it would paint a more detailed picture of the lives of settlers. I don't think it will be on our list of treasured, loved, books but it's a sweet story.

A well written rendition of a American folktale. But unlike some, this one is true. Enough suspense to keep my young children quietly listening chapter after chapter. Enough truth to make my momma heart cry with both sadness and joy in just 7 chapters. A must read!